A soft box is a type of photographic lighting device. A soft box creates an even and diffused light by directing light through some diffusing material, or by “bouncing” light off a second surface to diffuse the light. One type of bouncing source is an umbrella light where the light from the bulb is bounced off the inside of a metalized umbrella to create a soft indirect light.
One type of soft box is an enclosure around a light source comprising reflective side and back walls and a diffusing material at the front of the light.
The sides and back of the soft box are lined with a bright surface—an aluminized fabric surface or an aluminium foil, to act as an efficient reflector. A speed ring is a solid metal ring-shaped disk which is used to attach a soft box to a light source such as a studio strobe or a continuous light source. Often there are between 4 to 8 holes drilled into the circumference of the ring. These holes receive the support pins of the soft box. Support pins are then held in place in the holes by tension. The shape of the speed ring can vary depending on the manufacturer.
Typically the opening in the centre ranges from 4 to 7 inches, allowing the light source to enter the soft box or other light modifier.
Soft boxes, especially large soft boxes require a lot of manual effort during installation. The support pins must be manually bent and angled perpendicular to the centre axis of the speed ring in order to be able to be inserted in the hole of the speed ring. The force required increases with the number of metal ribs which have to be fitted.
Today there are prior art solutions where the metal ribs are brought into articulated sleeves. In these solutions it is much easier to turn up every metal rib, supported by the articulated sleeves. However, these solutions are expensive and complicated to manufacture since they consists of many parts.
There is therefore a need for an improved solution for mounting of a soft box on a light source, which solution solves or at least mitigates at least one of the above mentioned problems.